BIG NEWS FROM DELHI INDIA.

Dear players,

I just got in some news from India from my friend Saumil Patel, he is the owner of Inega models in mumbai (India).

If u have been following my blog for sometime, then u would know about the woman Sabrina savouyaud who has been cheating models and modeling agencies all over the world for the past years.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE OLD BLOG POST


HERE ARE THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE NEWSPAPER "DELHI TIMES".
----------------------------------------------------
Turf wars in the model world


FDCI is not the only fashion arena where charges and lawsuits are flying around. Two modelling agencies dealing with international models in India are involved in an escalating spat too


Times News Network


Infighting in the fashion world is not limited to designers and the FDCI alone. The modelling world has its own share of issues, especially when it comes to foreign models who come to India looking for work, drawn by increasing opportunities here. Many of them have come here without work permits and had to face the music, while others get a raw deal work-wise on account of dealing with people and agencies that put them through forgettable experiences.
It is therefore not entirely a surprise that two agencies which bring foreign models to India have been engaged in a turf battle for some time now, with the battle now having gone as far as police complaints and lawsuits. Mumbai-based Saumil Patel’s Inega Model Management, which is probably the leading modelling agency for foreign models in India,and Sabrina Modelling Management, an agency run by Delhi-based Sabrina Savoyard, are the agencies in question.
Saumil insists that Sabrina is involved in fraudulent practices and says that he has even taken her to court for defaming him. “Sabrina came to India in 2005 with a couple of foreign models and suggested that we should work together,” Saumil reveals, “Since both our agencies are dealing with international models, I accepted the proposal.” To begin with, all was hunky-dory. “We thought Sabrina knows her work and she was very impressive in the
beginning. But I soon started hearing complaints about her. She booked some tickets through my travel agent to bring a few models to India. She collected the cash from me to pay the travel agent but the money never reached him. On another occasion, I got a call from Executive Hotel in Bandra where she had stayed. They told me that she never paid the bill. I ended up paying the money.”
Saumil says he also found that Sabrina was mistreating the models. “Some international agencies started writing to me about how she had cheated them. I also got to know that she mistreats her models.”
The discomfort level escalated to hostility, Saumil adds, when Sabrina’s models started leaving her on these grounds and joining his agency. “Last year, a male model called Bruno left her and joined us. Sabrina got very upset about this. Since he had come to India on a work permit in her name, we asked him to apply for another work permit in our company’s name so that everything was above board. So Bruno went back to Thailand, got a new visa and came back and joined us. Sabrina then filed a complaint alleging that the new visa was forged. However, this was dismissed after the cops came and checked with us. Now I have filed a defamation case against her for Rs 5 lakh. And she has not paid many models a penny,” alleges Saumil. When we contacted Sabrina for her comment on the defamation case, she denied any knowledge of it. “What case? I don’t know about any. And I had filed a case against Saumil for forging the visa of a model I used to work with. And as far as all these allegations are concerned, they are not true,” she says. Sabrina asserts that speaking to models who have worked with her will dispel this impression. But some of those who have actually worked with Sabrina don’t quite
agree. A Thai model, Patrick Ribbsaeter, who has worked with her and claims that he has suffered on that account, tells DT,“Sabrina’s drama has been going on for a very long time and it should come to an end now. The day Sabrina messed up with me, I told her that I am going to get to the bottom of this, get every detail about her and tell the world. I got in touch with her through a model friend called Colin. She cheated him also and he complained to the police in this regard. After our face-off, Sabrina filed some 13 lawsuits against me and that is after cheating me! She demanded Rs 2,00,000 from me.” Patrick posted his grievances as far back as on May 26, 2007 in a post on his blog www.ribbsaeter.blogspot.com in a bid to warn other models. His angst is obvious when he puts a caption on Sabrina’s picture saying, “This is the b*- $#&” who cheated far too many people. Including me.”
As the allegations and counter-allegations fly, it seems there is more to the story. So, watch this space.
------------------------------------------------------